After Manchester United and Barcelona pretty much secured their respective places in the semi-finals of the Champions League last night with clean sheets away from home and comfortable wins, the remaining first leg games are just hours away.Liverpool travel down to Arsenal while Chelsea arrived in Turkey on Monday for their clash against Fenerbahce.
With the English derby set to be repeated on Saturday, and obviously again next week in the second leg, Rafa Benitez and Arsene Wenger's sides will see a lot of each other in the next few days. This first leg could either see both sides go for it, or play out a cautious game ahead of the league clash, but bear in mind the fact that meetings between teams from the so-called 'big four' are often dull. Note the extensive pre-match hype!
Chelsea meanwhile will be playing their European match in Asia, as the Sucru Saracoglu Stadium sits outside the European border in Istanbul.
While they expect an intimidating atmosphere in "Hell", the scariest thing about the game will no doubt be Avram Grant.
Fenerbahce will just be looking to give a decent account of themselves, although they are unbeaten at home in this competition, but the only eye-catchers in this game will be the customary flares being chucked about in the ground.
Grant has played out his fair share of bore-draws and there could be another on show tonight.
The second-legs are usually where the action on the pitch comes to the forefront, so for now just put up with all the talking and wait until Tuesday where the real games will be played.
Tonight is just the dress rehearsal, so who's going to fluff their lines this time?
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